Murder.
There’s no other way to describe what is happening to Alfie Evans.
The nearly two-year-old British boy has been afflicted with a mysterious brain disease that doctors are unable to cure. Yet, when Evans was removed from life support last night, he continued to breathe on his own. In fact, he’s been breathing on his own for nearly 13 hours, baffling his doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.
Alfie was taken off life support because a judge ruled against his parents seeking alternative treatment. The European Court of Rights has also rejected his parents’ plea to try different options to keep Alfie alive. Alfie’s father has been told he’ll face jail time if he attempts to remove his son from the hospital.
The case is very similar to the tragic saga of Charlie Gard last summer.
The Sun provides a little bit of Alfie’s history:
Alfie, who was born on May 9, 2016, is in a “semi-vegetative state” and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors had not definitively diagnosed.
Some experts believe he might have a mitochondrial condition – the same as Charlie Gard.
After he was admitted to Alder Hey, his parents were told he wasn’t going to make it – but he fought back to beat the infection and started breathing on his own.
But he caught another chest infection and had to go back on a ventilator when he began having more chronic seizures.
A last-minute effort was made for Alfie to be airlifted to an Italian hospital and receive alternative treatment. The Italian government went as far as to issue a stark warning to the U.K.
WOW. Italian Embassy in London: “If you remove the ventilator from Alfie Evans, we will file a complaint against you for the murder of an Italian citizen.” https://t.co/11UGLbhy5h
— Mahound’s Paradise (@MahoundParadise) April 23, 2018
Now a judge has ruled that Aflie may not be taken to Italy to seek additional treatment. He may, however, be allowed to go home to live out his last moments.
New: Judge appears to have ruled out allowing Alfie to go to Rome or Munich for treatment – but asks Alder Hey to consider possibility of letting parents take him home.
— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018
This is so tragic and unnecessary. The Italian government is willing to allow Alfie passage to the country to seek an alternative. But he’s being denied by the British government.
It’s an absolute moral mockery.
Even the Pope has weighed in on the case:
Moved by the prayers and immense solidarity shown little Alfie Evans, I renew my appeal that the suffering of his parents may be heard and that their desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 23, 2018
Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire had some strong words for this tragedy:
Hello, American Left. Where are you? I thought you were concerned about “saving the children”? Well, Alfie Evans is a child and he is currently being held hostage and starved to death. Do you haven nothing to say? Or have you decided that he is a “clump of cells” as well?
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 24, 2018
There is an air ambulance waiting outside Alder Hey hospital right now, ready to take Alfie to Italy for treatment. He is on oxygen but they are not feeding him or giving him much water. All they have to do is hand him over. If the boy dies now, it is pure murder.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 24, 2018
This judge is a monster. Dear God, what a disgusting, reprehensible man. God have mercy on him. https://t.co/RLpnAHOXY8
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 24, 2018
This is really the essence of the problem of government-controlled medicine. When the government runs hospitals, parents lose options for their children. In this case, the loss of alternatives turned deadly.
Little Alfie doesn’t have to die like this. It is inhumane to subject him to such needless suffering.
The issue with Alfie is not just one of misguided government intervention. It was also the bureaucratization of modern western society. The hospitals operate under government edict. They don’t have the autonomy to make decisions on their own. Doctors can’t make judgments on their own without approval from a state official. The one-size-fits-all approach government takes to matters gets in the way of human compassion.
In a sane society, Alfie would have been allowed to leave the hospital to seek alternative treatment. But there is no sanity in a government-centric society.
What do you think about what happened to Alfie Evans? Tell us your thoughts below!
UPDATE – It’s official: Alfie was denied the right to travel to Italy.
New: Alfie Evans family has lost its legal challenge to fly him to Italy for treatment in what judge calls the “final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy”
— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018